I have really enjoyed the time I had this last month with my brother Elias. When my mom and he came to pick up Leighanna from Melbourne, Elias decided to stay here in Gainesville with me for a week and a half. It has been great for me to escape from my studying with him, to play on the Playstation, to go swimming, to drive around town and to watch movies together. Amazingly, we successfully viewed three trilogies during his stay: Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and the Pink Panther (the middle three). Talk about partying, man, we were beeboppin' and a skattin' all over the place. I've learned Nan was right, my brother is never too big to carry. I've also learned no matter how big I am Elias will always be able to pick me up.

My brother and I have officially celebrated the holiday, old-man-bike and sparkeler-style. We gathered our sparkeler gear, packed our pockets full of phosphorus matches and struck out on our Miami Sun three-wheeled beach bike. One lap around the neighborhood sufficed. We passed plenty of pleased peasantry on the way and made a miraculous time (from this point on Elias and Travis each added a word at a time) of doing great things with us. Happy Sparkeler Times we have succeeded! Now we will write about the new encounter with the July Praying Mantis. Travis almost fainted in seeing the mantis named “Killer”, jumping onto the camera that Travis threw to the ground. The batteries flew out of the camera, while he screamed like a girl. The mantis then jumped onto his leg while Travis threw around his leg trying to get it off, but the mantis clung to his sock and that was that. Thanks for staying Eli!